Senate passage of Vape Bill ‘sacrificed Filipinos’ health to vape and e-cig makers, law group says

“Sinakripisyo ng mga senador ang kalusugan ng mga Pilipino para sa kita at pansariling interes ng mga kumpanya ng vape at e-cigarette (Senators sacrificed Filipinos’ health to the profit-driven interests of vape and e-cigarette companies)”.

This was the statement of public interest law group ImagineLaw on Thursday as Senators approved on third and final reading Senate Bill No. 2239 (SBN 2239) or the Vaporized Nicotine Products Regulation Act, more commonly known as the Vape Bill. The measure received 19 affirmative votes and 2 abstentions. Only Senators Pia Cayetano and Francis Pangilinan voted against the bill.

The measure, according to its proponents, seeks to regulate the manufacture, import, and sale of vapes and e-cigarettes. Medical practitioners and health advocates, however, heavily-criticized the measure as ‘anti-health, anti-youth, and anti-children’.

ImagineLaw Executive Director Sophia San Luis, said that the Vape Bill’s passage ‘signals a defeat of public health in the hands of corporate interests’. “The Vape Bill will not help smokers quit but will diversify the market and profit source of the tobacco industry which has invested in e-cigarette companies and manufactures heated tobacco products,” San Luis said.

“Once enacted into law, it will relax existing restrictions on these harmful products, including lowering the minimum age of access from the current 21 years old to 18 years old. It will also transfer the mandate to regulate these products from the Department of Health (DOH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the tobacco-friendly Department of Trade and Industry,” she also said.

An insult to frontliners amid the pandemic

The law group also said that the passage of the Vape Bill is an insult to medical frontliners. “The Senators approving an anti-health bill during the COVID-19 pandemic is an insult to our doctors, nurses, and health workers who have already sacrificed a lot in the last two years and will now have to contend with another epidemic,” San Luis said.

Previously, more than 60 medical associations and health groups released a statement urging the Senators to junk the measure. “The Senators chose to ignore the overwhelming professional opinion of Filipino doctors against vaping products, e-cigarettes, and the Vape Bill,” she also said.

Veto urged

ImagineLaw also urged President Rodrigo Duterte to veto the measure, citing that it goes against his existing policies on vape and e-cigarette use.

“President Duterte’s previous executive orders and issuances are for stronger control and regulation on vaping and e-cigarette use,” San Luis said. “We trust that he will remain resolute in fighting for the public’s health. The President should not allow this measure to pass and we strongly urge him to veto the Vape Bill for the sake of Filipinos’ health,” she urged.